1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally related to image capture and transmission systems and is specifically directed to an image capture, compression and transmission system specifically designed for field applications with wired, wireless and/or synchronous serial devices.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Industry has developed and continues to develop and enhance techniques for scanning, compressing, transmitting, receiving, decompressing and printing documents. This technology, encompassing the full body of facsimile transmission and reception, is currently in widespread use. The current standards, CCITT Group III and Group IV, define methods to scan and transmit high quality, bi-level images with a high degree of success and has become commercially acceptable throughout the world. However, gray scale documents and images are not easily transmitted because the scanners and algorithms are not tailored to the function. Three dimensional objects will not fit into the flat document scanners and cannot be transmitted.
Examples of systems that have addressed some of these issues are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,012 which shows a video to facsimile signal converter, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,937 which discloses a system for transmitting still television pictures over a telephone line.
Wire photography, and its extension, radio photography, have long been used by the news media. The most common form involves an input device that converts photographs into encoded signals for communication over telecommunications facilities or radio. At the receiving end, reproducing equipment reconverts the encoded image signals by exposing photographic film or other sensitized paper. The term facsimile is often use with these products.
Still video equipment has recently become available from vendors such as Canon and Sony, and is again primarily used by the television and print media, although applications are expanding rapidly in such areas as insurance investigations and real estate transactions. A still video camera that captures a full color still video image can be reproduced using a special video printer that converts the still video image data into hard copy form. For applications requiring communication of the still video image, transmit/receive units are available wherein the image begins and ends as a video image.
The PhotoPhone from Image Data Corporation is an example of a specialty product that combines a video camera, display and storage facility in a terminal package. One terminal can send a real time or stored still video image to another for display or storage, or printing on special video printers. Again, the signal begins and ends as a video image.
Another example of a specialty product is peripheral equipment available for personal computers that enables the input/output, storage and processing of still video images in digitized formats. For instance, the Canon PV-540 is a floppy disk drive that uses conventional still video disks, digitizing and a still video image using a conventional format, and communicates with the computer through a standard communications I/O port.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,012 discloses a still-video to facsimile conversion system for converting the still-video image frame into a half-tone facsimile reproduction without having to store an entire intermediated gray scale image frame by repeatedly transmitting the still-video image frame from a still-video source to an input circuit with a virtual facsimile page synchronization module. This system permits image to facsimile conversion by utilizing a half tone conversion technique.
While the various prior art systems and techniques provide limited solutions to the problem of transmitting visual images via a facsimile transmission system, all fall short of providing a reliable method and apparatus for readily capturing, storing, transmitting and printing visual images in a practical manner.
An example of a system that addresses many of these problems is shown and described in the copending application having Ser. No. 09/006,073, filed on Jan. 12, 1998, and entitled: APPARATUS FOR CAPTURING, CONVERTING AND TRANSMITTING A VISUAL IMAGE SIGNAL VIA A DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM. The system described therein provides the apparatus for capturing, compressing, converting, transmitting and receiving a facsimile using digital transmission techniques and protocols.
The subject invention is an image capture, compression and transmission system that is specifically designed to permit reliable visual image transmission over land lines or cellular communications using commercially available data transmission techniques. The preferred embodiment captures the high-resolution (640xc3x97480) full color images from any NTSC source like video cameras, monochrome image intensifiers, monochrome night visions devices (such as FLIRs) and the like. Depending on application, medium and low resolution may also be selected based on user selection. The system can be operated locally or remotely through the host interface software. In the remote mode, the image can be captured, stored and/or transmitted by remote xe2x80x9cdial upxe2x80x9d using land line telephone or cellular systems, or other communications systsems such as radio or the like. In the preferred embodiment, the system firmware may be loaded and accessed for troubleshooting via remote access as well.
The system of the present invention is specifically designed to operate over the public switched land line telephonic systems (POTS) and cellular services. The invention is designed with a hardware port for digital radio operation, as well.
Operating in correlation with a PC running WIN ""95 or NT4.0 or the equivalent, the system of the present invention provides a complete imagery communication system for commercial communications networks, providing a versatile remote imagery terminal for radio, cellular or land line based telephone systems. The preferred embodiment of the invention is fully compatible with and integrates with a standard AMP cellular phone such as by way of example, a Motorola flip phone, and supports NTSC monochrome composite and S-video sources including video cameras, camcorders, VCRs, still image cameras, image intensifiers and FLIR-night vision devices. In the preferred embodiment, all of the circuitry for the system is on a card or slice which is inserted between the battery pack and the body of a standard Motorola cellular phone. Full isolation of the system circuitry is provided, permitting power preservation for cellular telephone use when data transmission is not activated.
The present invention, permits a still frame visual image to be captured at a remote location and either stored locally or sent immediately, over land line or wireless communication systems, to a remote location such as, by way of example, a computer system wherein the image could be merged directly into newsprint. The image may also be printed as a hard copy using any Windows based printer or Group-III facsimile machine, anywhere in the world. Where desired, the images may be stored in memory for later recall, and may be archived on a portable medium such as a memory card or the like. In addition to multiple resolution capability, the system may be used with multiple compression algorithms such as JPEG, wavelet and other compression schemes.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the controller is programmed to permit smart addressing of the video RAM, allowing for row or column access to the image data, decimation and non-linear, sequential pixel access.
The system of the subject invention is particularly useful for applications where immediate transmission of visual images are desirable and sophisticated equipment is not always available for receiving the information. The system also provides a unique and reliable means for transmitting visual data from remote locations, such as, by way of example, construction sites, law enforcement and emergency vehicles and the like.
It is, therefore, an object and feature of the invention to provide an apparatus for capturing, converting and transmitting a visual image over land line or wireless telephone systems, such as cellular, or private wireless radio systems.
It is another object and feature of the invention to provide an apparatus for compressing the visual image data in order to minimize the capacity requirements of the data capture and storage system and to minimize the transmission time over the transmission media.
It is an additional object and feature of the invention to provide an apparatus for capturing converting and transmitting images over other wireless transmission systems such as radio and satellite.
Other objects and features will be readily apparent from the drawings and detailed description.